Friday, January 22, 2016

Dick Lau - Emmanuelle in Hong Kong (2003)

Synopsis :
Yan and Emily have been married for two years. Since Emily is cultivated in a catholic way and considers sex is a sin, their sex life is always miserable. To save their marriage, Yan hires a nobleman, K to give Emily a lesson on sex. Yan cookis up a scheme to kidnap his wide and locks her up in a castle for 3 months for the tutorial.

Movie review:
After given us some of the most cruel and horrible movies, with raw sex and barbaric violence, the category III from Hong-Kong seems to have calmed down a little and goes into softcore erotic movies. Emmanuelle in HK is a fairly good entertainment.

This sexploitation flick delivers some warm and wet scenes as long as a rather interesting plot (the treatment of a frigid woman) though not very profound. The movie is far from being a masterpiece. The cinematography goes from amateur to great, and the pervasive video looking picture tells us how cheap is the production. The music (some synthesied-dance-choir-religious simple tune) is surely the most irritating thing in this project. And some of the sex scenes are way too long and tend to be boring.

But then... Emmanuelle in HK has some terrific things as well. Let's say this lesbian sex scene between the model and her photographer is pretty arousing and disturbing. One of them is nude and not the other. But not for a long time... This reminds me a similar eroticism in another movie : the unbearable lightness of being. The sex lessons are various, inventive and even you might as well learn something. There's some light and artistic bondage (the wife is hanged by the waist to the ceiling and searchingly measured. We've got some voyeurism because the husband can see all the lessons through a one-way mirror. Now the real kinky stuff comes when an ejaculating woman is masturbated; there's also a bit of foot fetish, some shaving with Chantilly cream and a bit of female domination at the end.

What's pretty funny is that Emmanuelle in HK barely hides its inspiration from Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. For sure, the huge orgy scene has marked Emmanuelle's director for life. He just replays the scene, in his own way. Of course, it's not worth the original but it's well shot and imitated.

Emmanuelle in Hong-Kong delivers a bit more than expected. Of course it is mostly simulated sex and the story is more a pretext. But though, it will still entertain your guests by creating a damp, warm and luxurious atmosphere.